Interventional C-arm x-ray imaging equipment is sometimes used to support endo-vascular repair procedures like AAA (abdominal aortic aneurysm) or TAA (thoracic aortic aneurysm).
The interventional C-arm x-ray imager is used to produce a run of DSA (Digital Subtraction Angiography) projection images of the vasculature whilst a surgeon introduces therein a medical device such as a stent or an endo-graft. The images can be displayed on a screen during the intervention. The intervention is supported displaying on the screen a highlighted or marked outline of the vascular anatomy by means of a manual marker tool or by electronic means.
Precise positioning of the medical device inside the vessel is an objective.
The images obtained from the DSA run sometimes fail to give the surgeon a good idea of the position of the introduced medical device relative to an ostium in the vessel. This may then necessitate obtaining further DSA runs because positioning the medical device inside the vessel based on only the current DSA images can be challenging at times.